Great Review. As it stands will very likely be my new Audio player. Have you updated it to Gingerbread? It came to my understanding that some Apps might be "sluggish" any experience with that from any sideloaded from Amazon? Also, how is the audio quality when compared to the J3 or cheaper alternatives?

Yes, I put the Korean 2.3.3 (beta!) update on it. Not ready for prime time yet.

Yes, the more graphics-intensive games are a challenge for it, but they do run.

Audio quality is great (to my ears) but with no gapless playback I'd suggest the J3 right now, or even the new C2 for simple audio enjoyment.

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Originally Posted by Cpt5lImjIm

Great Review. As it stands will very likely be my new Audio player. Have you updated it to Gingerbread? It came to my understanding that some Apps might be "sluggish" any experience with that from any sideloaded from Amazon? Also, how is the audio quality when compared to the J3 or cheaper alternatives?

Very true, I am going to get a look at their source-code and then have a look over at XDA-developers to see what might be able to get done. I wonder if we could make our own kernel and ROM that would allow for it to happen.

One thing that arrived after the D3 came out is Amazon's AppStore. Easy enough to add to the D3, after which the missing Google apps/market no longer are the aggravation they used to be. The stock music app doesn't do gapless, but there are Rockbox builds for android floating around that does. I'm a big fan of Google's Music Beta, and so long as it is free I'm loving it on my D3. Nice playlist options, and every songs I own available with none actually copied to the D3. Still have a bug or two with the email app and my work account, but as a media player the D3 is finally earning its keep.

Took a look at its processor and asked a few questions to a couple of friends, and it seems as if the majority of the apps will run smoothly. Few exceptions could include high memory games, anything that includes an install package of over 8 MB. Other than that, this is a great option, Google+ will be a great addition and I'm just scouting for one of these in in $300 range to swoop it up.

The D3 is certainly not a bad first effort for an Android device from Cowon. Seems like everyone's first trys were similarly weak. What has happened that makes the D3 seem worse than it should is time. I got my D3 in january, and since then the world has moved to faster multi-core processors, increased hardware features (cameras and such), and so on. My HTC Evo 3D just arrived, and although a phone is a world better all-around than the D3. I appreciate Cowon's D3 effort, but REALLY want to see a second generation device from them.

The D3 is certainly not a bad first effort for an Android device from Cowon. Seems like everyone's first trys were similarly weak. What has happened that makes the D3 seem worse than it should is time. I got my D3 in january, and since then the world has moved to faster multi-core processors, increased hardware features (cameras and such), and so on. My HTC Evo 3D just arrived, and although a phone is a world better all-around than the D3. I appreciate Cowon's D3 effort, but REALLY want to see a second generation device from them.

I'm a huge Android & Cowon fan and this is pretty much the main reason that I've held off on the D3. I carry the HTC Thunderbolt now (I've had virtually every Android phone available on Verizon) and I just know I'd be disappointed when you compare the top of the line phones with the "Media Player" running on Android. The response time would just be annoying, even if you can install the market and run games and whatnot. Maybe their second effort will be more "high end" spec wise, but for the price of the D3 and the specs included, it just can't be that good. I also can imagine that their second and third efforts won't be able to keep up with the phone industry either, so I'm not sure I'll ever buy a Cowon based Android PMP. The experience the phone manufacturers have is a huge advantage. It's just too bad they can't make them sound as good as the Cowon based mp3 players.

So you people think that it is a problem of comparison, rather than a problem with the device itself?

I conclude that in order to make it more appealing to the consumer (us) they need to develop it faster or at least at the same speed as other major PMP- and phone producers.

Absolutely. Cowon needs to get their hardware up to the same standards as the phones are...and I just don't think that will ever happen. They just don't have the experience in my opinion. I've yet to find a Cowon player with a decent software interface (thank god for flash UIs) so they really aren't that great when it comes to hardware either. Everything just lags because the specs of their devices aren't up to par compared to the phone competition. Their BBE enhancements sell their players from a sound point of view but that's really all they've got unfortunately.

Absolutely. Cowon needs to get their hardware up to the same standards as the phones are...and I just don't think that will ever happen. They just don't have the experience in my opinion. I've yet to find a Cowon player with a decent software interface (thank god for flash UIs) so they really aren't that great when it comes to hardware either. Everything just lags because the specs of their devices aren't up to par compared to the phone competition. Their BBE enhancements sell their players from a sound point of view but that's really all they've got unfortunately.

I agree, but then again, Cowon has no need to have specs on par to a phone. I Would say that a 1 Ghz or even 1.2 Ghz would be sufficient to be a good PMP, not to mention a 1 Gb RAM, but in my eyes there is no need for a PMP to be on par to a phone do to the sole function of a PMP.